<\/p>
One of the biggest SEO challenges right now isn\u2019t AI. It\u2019s the irresponsible misinformation surrounding it. <\/p>
SEO isn\u2019t dying \u2014 it\u2019s evolving. That means it\u2019s on us to understand how the industry is changing, and to be careful about who we listen to.<\/p>
I\u2019m not easily shocked, but some of the AEO (or GEO) talks I\u2019ve seen over the past year have been genuinely eyebrow-raising \u2014 even for someone with Botox. <\/p>
I still remember one speaker telling a room full of marketers they were \u201csorry for anyone still working in SEO,\u201d then immediately recommending outdated tactics as the \u201csecret sauce\u201d for LLM visibility. It\u2019s been\u2026 painful.<\/p>
Thankfully, the adults have entered the room. This week, four of the industry\u2019s most trusted voices \u2014 Lily Ray, Kevin Indig, Steve Toth, and Ross Hudgens \u2014 came together for a roundtable on the future of search. It was easily the most useful AEO session I\u2019ve attended. Each shared specific tactics they\u2019ve personally used to achieve LLM visibility. <\/p>
Here\u2019s what they had to say.<\/p>
LLMs don\u2019t currently distinguish between paid and organic editorial. That means well-placed advertorials on reputable publishers can help brands show up in AI search, much like earned coverage. As with traditional PR, the publication\u2019s credibility still matters most.<\/p>
Paid syndication can increase reach, but quality matters more than quantity. Focus on reputable, relevant publications and use this tactic carefully.<\/p>
Brands that create clearly defined pages for each audience, industry, and use case are better positioned as AI search becomes more personalized. This structure helps LLMs understand relevance and remains a strong SEO practice, with or without AI.<\/p>
Your homepage should clearly communicate who you serve and what you do. LLMs parse homepage content far more easily than navigation menus, so relying on your nav to explain your offering is a missed opportunity.<\/p>
Don\u2019t overlook your footer. Brand and service signals placed here are being picked up by LLMs. Wil Reynolds shared a great case study showing how footer content can directly influence AI visibility.<\/p>
Despite the speculation, no major LLM has confirmed using llm.txt files, and Google has explicitly said it does not. Your time and effort are better spent elsewhere.<\/p>
Repurpose your core content across text, video, audio, and imagery. The goal is to build brand recognition across the full range of sources an LLM may pull from.<\/p>
Actively shape your brand narrative. It\u2019s estimated that 250 documents are needed to meaningfully influence how an LLM perceives a brand. Brands that don\u2019t publish and promote content consistently risk letting others define that narrative for them.<\/p>
Recent content tends to perform especially well in AI search, reflecting LLMs\u2019 preference for up-to-date information. That said, artificial \u201crefreshing\u201d without meaningful updates is a bad idea.<\/p>
Posts on platforms like LinkedIn\u2014including Pulse articles\u2014can appear in AI search within hours, sometimes minutes, especially for accounts with strong followings. Reddit, YouTube, and other high-trust platforms show similar behavior.<\/p>
Publishing on respected, niche industry sites can lead to rapid inclusion in LLM responses \u2014 sometimes within hours.<\/p>
FAQs should be visible and substantial, not hidden behind accordions. Don\u2019t hold back on content either\u2014 eight to 10 well-answered questions can clearly signal expertise, intent, and relevance to both users and LLMs.<\/p>
This much-debated question was addressed directly by John Mueller at Google Search Live in December. Putting the AEO cowboys in their place, he made it clear that good AEO still relies on good SEO:<\/p>
The overlap makes sense when you look at how modern LLMs like GPT-5 actually work. They use Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Rather than relying only on frozen training data, RAG lets an LLM query search engines and trusted sources in real time before answering. <\/p>
Put simply: if you want LLM visibility, you need to show up in search first.<\/p>
So yes, good AEO is good SEO \u2014 but there\u2019s nuance. The tactics above work right now, but they will inevitably evolve as LLMs continue to advance.<\/p>
Forget the magic button. Keep testing. Stay skeptical of the hype. And be selective about who you let into your ear \u2014 or your LinkedIn feed.<\/p>
Thanks to Bernard Huang and Clearscope for hosting this excellent panel.<\/em><\/p> <\/div> Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.<\/em> <\/p> News#optimize #search #proven #LLM #visibility #tactics1770063627<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the biggest SEO challenges right now isn\u2019t AI. It\u2019s the irresponsible misinformation surrounding it. SEO isn\u2019t dying \u2014 it\u2019s evolving. That means it\u2019s on us to understand how the industry is changing, and to be careful about who we listen to. I\u2019m not easily shocked, but some of the AEO (or GEO) talks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[778,83,183,8290,95,8291,76],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","tag-llm","tag-news","tag-optimize","tag-proven","tag-search","tag-tactics","tag-visibility"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}